Pressure relief system for dyeing apparatus

ABSTRACT

An improved package yarn dyeing system adapted for operation above the boiling point including a dye chemical add tank receiving a predetermined amount of diluting bath liquid before it is siphoned into an expansion tank and fed from there to the pump inlet feeding a kier through a heat exchanger. Further bath dilution and line washing as well are achieved by an add tank bypass line through which bath liquid is circulated. The add tank fill line emanates from the pump outlet and the kier dome is tapped by an additional expansion tank feed line to enhance and speed up dilution uniformity. The part of the equipment for circulating the dye back and forth through the packages may be isolated from the rest of the system and is protected against pressure damage by an expansion chamber containing a small volume of entrapped air.

United States Patent Claiborne 154] PRESSURE RELIEF SYSTEM FOR DYEING 211 App]. No.: 111,614

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 764,169, Oct: 1, 1968,

[ Aug. 14, 1973 Primary Examiner-Daniel Blum AttorneySte'vens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [5 7] ABSTRACT An improved package yarn dyeing system adapted for operation above the boiling point including a dye chemical add tank receiving a predetermined amount abandoned. of diluting bath liquid before it is siphoned into an expansion tank and fed from there to the pump inlet feed- [52] US. Cl 68/12 R, 68/189, 417/543 ing a kier through a heat exchanger. Further bath dilu- [51] Int. Cl. B05c 8/02 tion and line washing as well are achieved by an add [58] Field of Search 68/189, 190, 12 R; tank bypass line through which bath liquid is circu- 417/543 lated. The add tank fill line emanates from the pump outlet and the kier dome is tapped by an additional ex- [5 6] References Cited pansion tank feed line to enhance and speed up dilution UNITED STATES PATENTS uniformity. The part of the equipment for circulating 509 35! 11/1893 Maenens 68,189 x the dye back and forth through the packages may be 1 614 733 1 1927 Hufnagle.III:III II.. 417/543 mm the rest of the System and is Protected 571412 8/1866 Van Der Weyde 417 542 against Pressure damage y an expansion chamber ll 1 f t d FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS tammg a ma 115,785 9/1942 Australia 417/543 3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure ADD TANK 24 v m 1 L m i 29 -DRUG ROOM 1? DYEING ROOM 30 a; v V /1 Y 2 as i 1 i 15 1; 1 1 EXPANSION KIER 1 1 1 TANK m i i m 22 l PROGRAMMED l v 12 CONTROLLER 33 32 26' 17 O g .8 v 34 O O O 0 q V J 4 2o 7" A PRESSURE RELIEF SYSTEM FOR DYEING APPARATUS 'This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 764,169, filed Oct. 1, 1968, now abandoned.

This invention relates to a package dye system for the dyeing of yarns and threads and particularly to an improvement in such a system in which the cycling of the dye back and forth through the packages is accomplished with greater reliability, greater safetyand with reduced strain on the dye pump, the kier and the associated piping. Examples of the type of system to which this invention is applicable are to be found in Claiborne Pat. No. 3,097,515 and in Claiborne Pat. No. 3,417,414 issued Dec. 24, 1968.

In the package dyeing or other liquid treatment of yarns, yarn bodies which have been wound on perforated bobbins and are of uniform permeability are arranged in stacked relationship over perforated tubes located in a kier which is capable of being sealed. The kier is then sealed and filled with necessary media until the kier and related pumping and heat exchange system are full. At this stage the kier, its pump, and the heat exchanger are isolated from the dye supply portion and the expansion tank of the system and valves are actuated to cause the dye to flow back and forth radially through the stacks of packages. During this phase of the dyeing operation it is often necessary to raise the temperature of the dye liquid above the boiling point of water. Because the system is completely filled with liquid this increase in pressure has the effect of subjecting the entire locked off dye circulation system to the pressure of an expanding liquid, which has a pressure temperature curve so steep that small incrasese in temperature'cause pressures so high as commonly to result in the breaking of seals with resulting loss of dyestuff, loss of prime by the pump, interruption of the dye cycle and consequent loss of dye uniformity in the final product. The least efi'ect is the loss of liquid by the safety relief valve.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the foregoing difficulties and to provide for a high pressure, sealed system, cyclic reversing dye flow at high temperatures without subjecting the dye containing equipment to the pressures of an expanding liquid.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof in conjunction with the annexed drawing, the single FIGURE of which is a schematic diagram of a typical package dye system incorporating the improvements of the present invention.

The system shown in the drawing includes a kier to which liquid is fed by a pump 11 through a flow direction switch valve 12 and a heat exchanger 13. The kier 10 may be of the type shown in J. L. Claiborne Pat. No. 3,097,515 in which the flow of dyestuff may be reversed by the operation of valve 12 to cause the dye to flow radially outwardly through the stacked packages and then radially inwardly through them, in repeated cycles for such a length of time as the dye process may The expansion tank 15 is connected by a pipe 17 to the intake ofa pump 11, a valve 18 being located in the line 17 so that the intake of the pump 11 can be isolated from the expansion tank 15 when desired. A dye circulation line 19 is connected through a T-fitting 20 to the dishcarge line 21 of the pump 11 which connects the output of the pump 11 to the heat exchanger 13. There is a valve 22 in the line 19 so that flow to the add tank may be cutoff after mixing is complete. At the end of conduit 19, remote from the valve 22, the conduit is branched into two portions, a bypass portion 23 and a portion 24 leading to the add tank. Whether liquid returning through conduit 19 goes to the add tank or bypasses it depends upon the position of two valves, valve 25 in bypass line 23 and valve 26 in bypass line 24. These valves, as well as the flow direction switch valve 12 and the pump 11, may be automatically controlled by the remote program controller diagrammatically indicated at 26'. Suitable program controllers for this purpose are disclosed in US. Pat. Nos. 3,358,161 and 3,371,318 which issued Dec. 12, 1967, and Feb. 27, 1968, respectively.

The add tank 14 is fitted with a siphon 27 which draws from a sump 28 formed at the bottom of add tank 14 whenever the the liquid in the add tank rises above the bend in the tube 27. An overflow pipe 29 delivers any excess liquid in tank 24 to the feed end of conduit 16. A line 30 provided with a valve 31 taps the top of the kier l1) and can supply liquor from the kier 10 to the expansion tank 15 when valve 31 is open. Of course, valve 31 can be closed; and when that valve, as well as valve 22 and valve 18, is closed, a path is established from pump 11 through heat exchanger 13 to valve 12 to kier 10 back to valve 12 and then through a conduit 32 to an expansion chamber 33 to a conduit 34 back to the feed side of pump 11. The use of the above system for the mixing of the dye and the supplying of the same to the kier is described in US. Pat. No. 3,417,414. In summary, the system disclosed makes up the dyestuffs by causing the add tank to receive a predetermined amount of bath liquid before the siphon 27 operates to siphon it into the expansion tank 15 from which it is fed to the kier 10. The dome of kier 10 is tapped by the line 311 leading to the expansion tank 15 and this functions to enhance and speed up dilution uniformity.

The features disclosed and claimed in US. Pat. No. 3,417,414, have to do with the preparation of the dyestuff and introducing the prepared dye liquid to the stacked packages within the kier 10. The present invention is concerned with the operation of the system after the dyestuff has been prepared and the kier has been filled with dye liguid. At this stage the practice is to pass the dye radially back and forth through the stacked packages, and to do this valves 18, 22, and 31 are closed. The system, including pump 1 1, the heat exchanger 13, the flow direction switch valve 12 and the connecting conduits, is completely full of liquid except for a small air pocket in the top of expansion chamber 33. Switch valve 12 is operated to cause flow first in one direction through the packages and then in the other in repeated cycles. The system is brought up to temperature by appropriate operation of heat exchanger 13.

In dyeing yarns the temperatures required are usually well in excess of the boiling temperature of water at atmospheric pressure. As a matter of fact, temperatures of 275 F. are common. Under these circumstances, before the system was equipped with an expansion chamber such as part 33, the contained liquid would show a very steep pressure rise in response to increase in temperature, the liquid working directly against the solid walls of the pipes and kier. The effect of this was that at temperatures in the vicinity of'250 F. and above, small changes in temperature cause pressures so high as to cause gaskets to rupture with resulting loss of dyestuff from the closed, cycling system. However, with the small body or pocket of air in the top of the compression chamber 33, the pressure curve in response to changes in temperature follows a more reasonable gradient, not being the steep curve of expanding contained liquid, but instead a curve representing the combined effect of the small amount of vapor which forms in the expansion chamber and the compression of the air therein. This curve has a slope much more gentle than the pressure curve for a confined liquid and it follows that use of the chamber 33 in the system as described has had-a very beneficial effect in preventing loss of dyestuff as well as damaged gaskets and seals.

An important advantage of the present invention is to provide a protective device which is adequate and at the same time very small since any device used for this purpose has to be pressure resistant, It is clear that the smaller it is the more inexpensively it may be made. Furthermore, the device of the present invention does not require a lid with attendant sealing difficulties. It has been discovered that if the internal volume of the compression chamber 33 is from one-tenth to one-fifth of a gallon per pound of yarn in the machine, the protective function is satisfactorily and economically performed. A common charge to a kier such as the kier is 100 pounds of yarn in which case the internal volume of compression chamber 33 is from 10 to 20 gallons. Common differential pressures in the operation without the accumulator device are from 50 psi up to the value of the safety valve 35 but by the use of the accumulator the differential pressures can be held to less than 50 psi with no loss of pump prime at any time due to a negative pressure which occurs during cooling.

What is claimed is:

I. An apparatus for dyeing yarns with a liquid containing a dye at a temperature above the boiling point of the liquid comprising a kier, means in the kier for stacking yarns therein, means forflowing the liquid through the stacked yarns comprising a vessel for storing liquid at atmospheric pressure, a pump, a first conduit for carrying liquid from the said vessel into the suction side of the pump, a heat exchanger, a second con duit for carrying liquid from the pressure side of the pump through the heat exchanger and to the bottom of the kier, a third conduit for carrying liquid from the kier to the suction side of the pump, a small expansion chamber connected to the third conduit between the kier and pump and providing a closed gas pocket having an interface with liquid in the third conduit, 21 fourway valve in said second and third conduits for directing flow of liquid into the kier through the second conduit and out of the kier through the third conduit or into the kier through the third conduit and out the second conduit into the third conduit, a fourth conduit for carrying liquid from the kier to the said vessel, a valve in the fourth conduit and a valve in the first conduit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a fifth conduit communicates between said second conduit at a point between the pump and heat exchanger and means for adding dye liquid to the said storage vessel, and said fifth conduit comprises a first valve therein for preventing flow of liquid therethrough.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in combination with a programming means for actuating said valves and pump. 

1. An apparatus for dyeing yarns with a liquid containing a dye at a temperature above the boiling point of the liquid comprising a kier, means in the kier for stacking yarns therein, means for flowing the liquid through the stacked yarns comprising a vessel for storing liquid at atmospheric pressure, a pump, a first conduit for carrying liquid from the said vessel into the suction side of the pump, a heat exchanger, a second conduit for carrying liquid from the pressure side of the pump through the heat exchanger and to the bottom of the kier, a third conduit for carrying liquid from the kier to the suction side of the pump, a small expansion chamber connected to the third conduit between the kier and pump and providing a closed gas pocket having an interface with liquid in the third conduit, a four-way valve in said second and third conduits for directing flow of liquid into the kier through the second conduit and out of the kier through the third conduit or into the kier through the third conduit and out the second conduit into the third conduit, a fourth conduit for carrying liquid from the kier to the said vessel, a valve in the fourth conduit and a valve in the first conduit.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a fifth conduit communIcates between said second conduit at a point between the pump and heat exchanger and means for adding dye liquid to the said storage vessel, and said fifth conduit comprises a first valve therein for preventing flow of liquid therethrough.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 in combination with a programming means for actuating said valves and pump. 